


I Want You For A Lifetime

by thekeybladetomyheart (ObsessedMuch)



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Fix-It, Let Kairi Be A Badass, Multi, Not Canon Compliant, Spoilers - Kingdom Hearts III, it was all a dream
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-17
Updated: 2019-02-17
Packaged: 2019-10-30 03:03:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,695
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17820587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ObsessedMuch/pseuds/thekeybladetomyheart
Summary: Shortly after the gang defeat Xehanort in the Keyblade Graveyard, Kairi has a bad dream. Sora and Riku are there to comfort her.





	I Want You For A Lifetime

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah, this is the cliché "bad ending is all a dream, they actually had a good ending" because we all know the Destiny trio deserved better.
> 
> And of course, title is from "Don't Think Twice" by Utada Hikaru

“ _There’s no saving you_.”

The words echoed in Kairi’s head as she sat up, gasping for breath. Her face felt wet, and she knew even before she brought a hand to her cheek that she’d been crying.

Her eyes darted around the dark room as she tried to steady her breathing. There was no point in waking anyone else up because she couldn’t control her brain. Unfortunately, the rustling of the blanket and sudden movement to her left informed her that she’d failed.

“Kairi?” Riku’s voice was soft but concerned. “Are you okay?” She sighed. He’d always been a light sleeper, and she felt horribly guilty for waking him.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” she whispered. “I just had a bad dream.”

He sat up next to her, wrapping a comforting arm around her shoulder. “What was it about?”

“I guess it was about everything that happened in the Keyblade Graveyard.” A shiver ran down her spine as she tried to sort reality from her dreamscape. “It was after we beat back that huge tide of Heartless. You remember? We got trapped in that weird labyrinth, and had to fight all of Xehanort’s vessels.”

“I remember,” he replied, a soft smile gracing his features. He brushed a hand gently down her cheek. “You were amazing; you fought like you were born for it, and I think you even had Lea scared. What about that day is giving you nightmares, though?”

“I dreamed that Xehanort killed me.” She tried not to choke on the words, her guilt swelling further when that little smile melted off Riku’s face. “Then Sora came to save me, and he ended up…he…” Tears welled up in her eyes again, and she couldn’t speak past the lump in her throat.

Riku looked at her for a moment, eyes unreadable in the dim light, before reaching over her to smack at the still-snoring boy on her other side. “Wake up, sleeping beauty.”

The only response they got was a sleepy, “huh?” Undeterred, Riku simply continued batting at the blanket cocoon that was Sora. Unlike the other boy, he’d remained nearly impossible to wake through the years.

“I said, wake up. Your girlfriend needs reassurance and cuddles,” Riku hissed. He only let up his assault when Sora peered up at them, rubbing his eyes.

“She’s your girlfriend, too. Why don’t _you_ reassure her?” he asked. Still, despite the annoyance in his tone, he froze when he saw Kairi’s tear-stained face. “Kai? What’s wrong?”

His worried voice, still heavy with sleep, finally broke the composure she’d managed to scrape together. Sobs wracked her body as she covered her face, a futile attempt at hiding her breakdown. Even the warmth of the two bodies that moved to envelop hers could only slow the tears a little bit.

It seemed like an eternity passed before Kairi regained control of herself, rubbing the tear tracks away viciously. A gentle hand grabbed hers when her skin started to smart with the rough motion.

“Hey, no need for all of that,” Riku said softly. He laced his fingers with hers carefully, and Sora did the same on her other side.

“Think you can tell us what’s wrong, now?” Sora’s question was hesitant, like he didn’t want to provoke another crying fit, but there was no denying the heavy curiosity that his words carried.

She nodded slowly, finally calm enough to put words to the events of her dream. “I already told Riku, but I had a nightmare about everything that happened at the Keyblade Graveyard. Some parts of it were the same, but in my dream, things happened…differently.”

Sora’s nose scrunched up in confusion. “What do you mean?” Riku shushed him.

“Let her talk, Rip Van Winkle.” The younger boy frowned and stuck out his tongue, but remained silent.

“Do you remember when you came and helped fight Isa—or, Saix—and Xemnas with me and Lea?” Sora nodded, pointedly keeping his mouth shut. “Lea got knocked down and lost his Keyblade, and then Roxas came to help out, right? But in my dream, before Xemnas scurried off, he…” Her breath hitched, but she forced herself to keep talking. “He grabbed me, because for some reason I was hanging behind everyone. He twisted my arm up behind my back, too.”

Sora rubbed a gentle hand on her shoulder, where she could still feel the phantom pain of Xemnas’s grip. She relaxed, tension she hadn’t even realized she’d been holding bleeding out at the sweet gesture.

“He said that you guys wouldn’t need me, since you had ‘extra lights’, and then he took me with him.” Both of the boys sucked in a breath, and she almost laughed at the offense written so clearly on their faces. “It gets a little bit hard to explain after that, but the next coherent part happens when we had to face Xehanort.”

Riku’s eyes flashed as he clearly remembered her words from earlier. “Is that when…?”

“Yeah,” she said. “He said that Sora needed ‘motivation,’ like we hadn’t just come from fighting all his other vessels. And since Xemnas had brought me there, Xehanort killed me in front of you guys.”

“That’s just sick,” Sora fumed, steam practically coming out of his ears. “Why would he even bother with something like that? We did basically everything he wanted us to, except we kicked his butt in the end.”

“Besides, that’s just unrealistic,” Riku added. There was a little smirk playing around the corners of his mouth. “We all know Xehanort wouldn’t be able to take a badass Keyblade queen such as yourself out that easily.”

That startled a weak laugh from Kairi. “You bet your ass. But in my dream, I couldn’t do anything about it. And that’s not the end of it.”

“Yeah, you mentioned something about Sora. What happened?”

“Well, you know how he used the power of waking to save everyone, when the Heartless attacked us the first time?” Both boys murmured their assent. “Because I was helping him, I saw most of what happened. Including your conversation with the younger version of Xehanort.” She saw the surprise flicker across Sora’s face before he closed his eyes in concentration.

“That guy was super weird, and even more cryptic than Xigbar was. Nothing he said made a whole lot of sense, so I don’t really remember a lot of it.”

“But you remember him saying something about a price to pay, don’t you?” She squeezed his hand a little, and he opened his eyes really wide.

“Yeah, he said something like, ‘there’s no saving you.’ But obviously he was wrong, because I’m here now. I think he was just trying to scare me.” Despite his lighthearted tone, the words made her hands clench a little too tight. But neither of her boys objected, and she used the touch to ground herself as she continued.

“You guys went on to beat Xehanort without me, and then after the fight was over, Sora said he was going to save me.” She could hear herself speeding up, like she needed to spit it out now before she completely lost her nerve. “He went alone, because that’s what he thought he needed to do, and everyone just let him go.” Riku looked like he wanted to say something, but she shook her head. She needed to finish.

“In the end, he did it; he saved me. We went back to the Destiny Islands and invited everyone over for a party to celebrate. Then, while we were sitting on the paopu tree he turned to me. He said he was sorry, but that he hadn’t wanted me to be alone. And then…he faded away. Just like that.”

Tears threatened to spill out again, but Kairi refused to let them fall. It was just a stupid dream; she shouldn’t be this upset about it. She wrestled with herself for a few minutes before she realized that she hadn’t gotten a reaction from either of her boyfriends yet.

Hesitantly, she raised her head, looking at Riku first. He had a haunted look in his eyes, and the way he was clenching his jaw looked painful. When he noticed her stare, he cleared his throat and tried to smile, but it was small and weak.

When she turned her head to look at Sora, he was staring out at the wall. There was a wrinkle in his forehead, which usually meant that he was thinking hard about something. As if he could sense her gaze, he turned and met her eyes. His smile was much more genuine.

“I’m not going to lie, that sounds like something I would do,” he said, and Riku let out a strangled bark of laughter. Sora got off the bed, sliding down so that he was kneeling in front of both of them, looking up with wide blue eyes. “You both know that, so there’s no point in denying it. But that’s not what happened; I’m still here with both of you, and I’m not going anywhere else without you.”

“You’d better not,” she threatened. “I’ve had about enough of you running off, and I won’t let you get away with it anymore.”

Riku snorted. “Likewise. We’ve spent enough time apart, so from now on we stick together no matter what.”

Even in the dark of the room, Sora’s smile could blind lesser people. “Deal. We all know Xehanort was full of crap, anyway, so I’m not worried about anything his younger self said to me.”

“Good to know it doesn’t bother _you_ ,” Riku said briskly, reaching down to pull Sora back on the bed. “Now that we’ve got that all sorted out, I think it’s time to go back to sleep. We’ve got a training session with everyone tomorrow, and dealing with Lea and Isa in the same room requires a full night of sleep.”

Kairi settled down quickly enough, the knot in her stomach finally beginning to ease. It really had been just a dream; Sora wasn’t going anywhere. Though if she and Riku moved so that Sora was squished between them as they slept, well…you could never be too sure.

**Author's Note:**

> Guess who has two thumbs and is STILL bitter about that ending? Yep, it's me.
> 
> I'm still grieving, which means I'm still spitting out stories. Next up: the ANGST, because I'm truly a masochist.


End file.
